January 19, 2011

Categories:

The guest list at tonight's state dinner is, for some White House allies, another source of grievance. A labor official emails:

On day [AFL-CIO President Richard] Trumka gives speech laying out how we need real jobs solutions and not bankers/wall st/deficit talk Blankfein (mentioned by name in speech), Dimon at the state dinner.....Trumka also criticized murdoch's influence in the political process, Murdoch's wife is going.......they only invited single person from labor, and it's Bob King, because of his support for [the South Korean free trade agreement].

Reader Comments (5)

Pages

At least SOMEONE is trying to keep jobs here in America, unlike the republicans who all voted against a bill that would end subsidies for those companies that are sending American jobs to foreign countries. While China's industrial sector is soaring with new jobs, here in America we see companies sending more American jobs to foreign countries.

Posted By: At least SOMEONE is trying to keep jobs here in America, unlike the republicans who all voted agains | January 20, 2011 at 01:16 AM

Mr. Boehner, where are the jobs you promised??!!! You promised to focus on jobs first thing when you became Speaker!!! So what are you doing, screwing around with repeal when you know darned well that the senate will never pass it and the president will never sign it!!!! What in the hell are you doing wasting our taxpayer dollars on votes that will never mean anything?!!! WHERE IN THE HELL ARE THE JOBS YOU PROMISED??!!!!

Here's what Obama has done his first two years:
1. Shifting private debt to the public sector (thereby freeing corporations, esp the financial industry, but also financial arms of GM, GE, etc, and saddling the middle class with the obligation to ‘pay it off’).
2. Watching private sector profits reach un-precedented levels (while investment goes abroad, hiring moves abroad, and manufacturing continues to disappear and un-employment continues).
3. Raising the defense budget 6% (so, when “cuts” come, the defense industries will be safely sandbagged).
4. Allowing the financial industry to 'borrow' from the ‘public sector’ (i.e. me and you) at 1% and buy bonds that pay 3% interest (Banks take your $1 and make $2 off each one they ‘borrowed’ from you. But, here’s the real deal: You gave them the $1 they ‘borrowed’, and you pay them the $2 interest they ‘earned’ on the bonds. All the money they ‘invest’ came from you – a ‘loan’ – and all the money they make comes from you – you have to cover the interest on the bonds).
5. Allowing the financial industry to 'borrow' from the ‘public sector’ (i.e. me and you again) at 1%, to loan to me and you at 4%, 12%, 18% or more mortgages, credit cards and other lines of credit (pocketing 3%, 11% and 17% on your and my money – first given to them by us, then ‘paid back with interest’ by us).
6. Giving private sector insurers a windfall: mandated customers, with a taxpayer-paid overhead rate of 20% for ‘mandated customers’ (20% of our premium spent on administration, CEO salaries, bonuses, sitting on Boards to set rates and decide who’s covered, lobbying for the insurers’ benefit, advertising and propagandizing to redefine more and more as ‘health care service’ while delivering fewer and fewer services --- essentially, giving our tax money to insurers to do with it what they will). *The American people wanted a government administered plan like Medicare - for everyone. (72% - CBS/New York Times poll June 2009)
7. Expanding the war in Afghanistan. (64% of the American people opposed expanding the war in Afghanistan and wanted to disentangle from Bush-era ‘War on Terror’ and ‘preventive war’ policies. Still, over 60% of Americans oppose the war.?
8. Keeping the six too-big-to-fail banks – now bigger than ever; keeping deposits at risk by maintaining huge grey areas between commercial and investment banking; not 'punishing' the financial industry, ie taxing it - now even more profitable, with bonuses among the biggest ever.
9. Supporting ‘The Compromise’ – giving billionaires $10 for each $1 to an un- or under-employed person or family (with a 15% tax rate for hedge funds; 25-33% for lower & middle class workers)
Where was 'labor' when this was happening?